Let me tell you a quick story about my time developing this update. I started at level 20 - the minimum required level to pick up The Orcs of Lvell quest from Captain Reynolds in Port Reception. I designed the encounters while testing them, picking up from where I had left off months ago. The first segment took me a solid 40 minutes, but to make sure everything was functional - I could not have save points along the way. The second segment, having more moving parts and crazy battles, took another 30-40. I did this at least 15 times, starting from the very beginning at Quest accept every time. Then I got sidetracked on the concept of the update earlier this week - introducing a legendary scythe. So I spent hours and hours fine tuning that and making sure it worked. But I made the boss too difficult. So I had to ask myself if the enhanced difficulty was a bad thing, or should I just gear up to fight it. So I geared up. For close to 6 in game hours, I completed the entire Hall of Challengers and picked up several Rift An'ura weapons from the Colosseum. With these in hand, I completed the Scythe requirements, moved on to the new Orcs of Lvell story and knocked it right out of the park.
I tell you all this to highlight something I didn't consider would ever happen with Cross of Auria - the difference in preparation for me between level 20 to level 25 plus the Challenger gear and legendary scythe turned what was originally an hour and a half update to the story down to nearly 15 minutes.
For the first time ever in CoA, this update delivers you a new challenge that is difficult but able to be overcome at lower levels and really shines when you've done adequate side content.
The Orcs of Lvell quest isn't the only thing rolling out today. I've finally created a use for Dojo Cerberus in Lvell - Class Trials! Effective immediately, after day 1 and before the start of the Orc War, level 15 class trials are available for White Mage, Black Mage, Swordsman, Knight, and Pyromancer - allowing you to try them out before committing to leveling them! Oh, and conditions for obtaining Pyromancer are now baked in! They are incredibly steep but for this class in particular, a story event will grant this class in one of the next few segments to be released.
Speaking of class trials, for players who have not downloaded Eyes in the Frost (which you should, it's free), Snowdrift Village hosts a single class trial for the Frostslayer class. I won't cover too much about what that class has today - the important part is the Ice-Killer element typing, which does reduced damage to most elemental enemies but 2x damage to Ice enemies.
The important thing about classes is... you keep the skills, magic, specials, and everything else even when you change back to your main class!
Finally, this patch includes a finalization of all tiered elemental abilities (Firebolt, Firebolt II, etc) as it relates to their Learn requirements and Mastery effect. Because this is a brand new introduction, the specifics are not saved in the patch notes at the bottom of this post, but the general ideal is as follows:
Reference info: Firebolt I = Tier 1 Stage 1, Lava Burst II = Tier 3 Stage 2
- Tier 1 Elemental abilities now require 10 Essence of Life & 10 Essence of Magick, + 10 of the related elemental essence to be learned when available from the Skill/Class Learn Skill screen.
- Every additional stage per tier requires 5 extra elemental essences, plus a character level of +5 to learn.
- Tier 2 abilities require 20 Essence of Life & Magick, and Tier 3 require 30 of each.-
- Learn costs can be avoided by using skill guides or leveling classes to the point where they would learn these abilities naturally. The learn cost effectively exists to allow you to get higher potency skills earlier.
- ALL elemental abilities affected by the above changes also now have a maximum mastery level of 10 with the mastery effect of -1 MP / -1 TP / +25 Damage per level.
So, let's show a brief overview of tiers and stages for abilities.
Tier & Stage Differences
Emberstrike I: 15MP/30TP
Emberstrike II: 10MP/20TP/1CD
Emberstrike III: 5MP/10TP/2CD
As the STAGES increase, the cost to use is reduced and the cooldown increases. The damage output however is the same across all three stages.
Flamestrike I: 30MP/50TP/STRIKES TWICE
Flamestrike II: 20MP/35TP/1CD/STRIKES TWICE
Flamestrike III: 10MP/20TP/2CD/STRIKES TWICE
As the TIERS increase, the number of hits increases with no loss to the damage per hit. This effectively makes Flamestrike I by default exactly twice as powerful as Emberstrike I.
Lavastrike I: 50MP/70TP/STRIKES 3X
Lavastrike II: 35MP/50TP/1CD/STRIKES 3X
Lavastrike III: 20MP/30TP/2CD/STRIKES 3X
Lavastrike III (Level 10): 10MP/20TP/2CD/STRIKES 3X/+250DMG per strike
At max level (where levels are earned by usage), abilities can do more damage or cost less to use depending on what their Mastery perks are. In this case, all elemental skills that follow a 3 tier 3 stage format have level 10 max, -1TP/-1MP/+25damage per mastery level! Elemental magick on the other hand has the same level cap, but has -1MP/+50damage per mastery level.
Without further ado...
6.8.1.0 [Build #178, Release Date: May 4, 2025]
New:
- It is now possible to accept and complete a new quest - The Orcs of Lvell!
- In Snowdrift Village, the Frostslayer class is available for non-DLC owners for a brief trial battle.
- Dojo Cerberus is now available before the events of the Orc War to offer level 15 class trials for White Mage, Black Mage, Knight, Swordsman, and Pyromancer.
Fixes:
- Fireball II, Fireball III, Lava Burst, Lava Burst II, Lava Burst III now strike the correct amount of times.
Skill & Mastery Effects:
- Finalization of Elemental skills is now effective, with permanent learn costs, required levels, and required learned skills.
- Hailstorm: Level 10, -1MP/-1TP/+100dmg per level.
- Blizzard: Level 10, -1MP/-1TP/+100dmg per level.
- Eruption line: Level 10, -2MP/+250dmg per level.
- Waterfall line: Level 10, -1MP/+200dmg per level
- Icefall line: Level 10, -2MP/+33%dmg per level
- Swarm: Level 10, +33 dmg per level.
- Gust: Level 10, +25dmg per level.
- Psycho Shield: Level 10, -1MP per level.
- Elemental II skills & magic now have a 1 turn cooldown.
- Elemental III skills & magic now have a 2 turn cooldown.
- All elemental skills (except electric): Level 10, -1MP/-1TP/+25dmg per level.
- Snakelashing: Level 10, -1TP/+100dmg per level.
- All elemental magic (except electric): Level 10, -1MP/+50dmg per level.
- Freeze: Level 10, -1MP cost per level, cooldown 3.
- Shatter: Level 10, -1TP/+125dmg per level, warmup 1, cooldown 3.
- Infect: Level 5, +250dmg per level, cooldown 2.
- Spark Storm: Level 10, -1MP/+50dmg per level, cooldown 2.
- Arcane Cannon: Level 10, -1TP/-1MP per level.
- Arcstorm/Thunderstorm: Level 10, -1MP/+250dmg per level, warmup 2, cooldown 5.
- Barricade, Spellshield, Resurrection, Avoidance: Level 0.
- Curse: Level 10, +5%dmg/-1MP per level.
- Magick Siphon: Level 10, +20%dmg/-1TP per level.
- Backstab: Level 10, +10%dmg per level, reduced level 0 damage output.
- Knife Twist: Level 20, +33%dmg/-1TP per level, cooldown 3.
Notes, Known Issues & Other:
- A quest is added to your Quest Log after The Orcs of Lvell is completed, but its details are unfinished pending a future update. The addition of the quest to the log now will make it easier in the future update to process what to do next without requiring a vague NPC interaction.